Organo-silicone compounds are one of two types—terminal or internal—depending upon the location of the organofunctional group. Terminal organo-silicone compounds have the organofunctional groups at the alpha and omega termini of the molecule. The basic structure is as follows:
where R is an organofunctional group, and a is an integer representing the degree of polymerization of the molecule.
Internal organo-silicone compounds have the organofunctional groups on non-terminal ends of the molecule, and are also called “comb” or “multifunctional” organo-silicone compounds because the organofunctionality lies in the molecule like the teeth of a comb. These compounds possess the basic structure:
where R is an organofunctional group.